Entries (RSS) Voices of the San
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Voices of the San is the first book of its kind in southern Africa. It is a form of autobiography of the First Peoples of this region. Over the years many books have been written about the San of southern Africa, who are widely known as the Bushmen and frequently viewed as one entity. This is the first international publication in which the San of today step forward to tell their own story in their own words. Covering eight language groups in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, young San interviewers went out into their communities and collected the thoughts and feelings, knowledge and understanding, dreams and fears, of their elders and their peers. The interviews they transcribed present the spirit of their communities and highlight the traditional differences and similarities between the groups, the shared history of suffering, and their desire and enthusiasm for life and most of all, freedom. Voices of the San provides a glimpse into the hundreds of broad, open-ended discussions held amongst the San themselves. It begins with the story of this book and is then divided into four chapters covering the themes they themselves identified as reflecting their current existence: •Hunters turned Herders – the effects of contact and change •The past life was a great one – insight into their amazing traditional cultures •They say the land is like this, this, this … – their close link with nature and the land •Those who are ‘deep down’: the surge for survival – from a ‘traditional’ to a ‘modern’ economy Running alongside the themed chapters is a parallel text by Willemien le Roux, author of the award-winning collection of short stories about the modern-day San titled Shadow Bird. She has worked and lived with the San in Botswana for more than 20 years. This text, printed on a blue background to distinguish it from the body text of San quotes, presents an overview of the history of the San in this region as recorded in books and historical documents, supplemented with comments from the San themselves on that history. The parallel text also includes information on the San communities in Angola, Zimbabwe and Zambia. All of this is richly and beautifully illustrated with over 300 photographs, contemporary artworks and drawings. The photographs are both historic and modern; including images from the Bleek and Lloyd Collection (late 19th century), the Duggan-Cronin Collection dating form the early 20th century and the Denver Expedition of 1925, as well as internationally known photographers such as Jens Bjerre (circa 1955), Jürgen Schadeberg (1959) and Paul Weinberg (1985- ), and the San organisations within the region. The picture research was done by Alison White, who dedicated 18 months to this task. In the final year of the UN’s Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Voices of the San joined the global movement of all First Peoples to make their voices heard. It is a vital contribution to the written history of this region; an exposé of traditional peoples’ struggle to live in the ‘modern’ world; a visual feast, but also a reckoning of the neglect we choose to believe is a thing of the past, but which is still a very real facet of the San peoples’ lives. This is a positive step forward and what makes this book unique is that from its inception it has been directed by the San. This is the realisation of a dream: to produce their own book, the proceeds of which will go to the San organisations themselves, not the compilers. Price (ZA) R325.00 |
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